Saturday, June 12, 2010

Do Not Sacrifice Sleep While Traveling

By Joan Campbell

Often the trouble that travelers have to deal with while traveling is the apparent lack of sleep. Some of the contributing factors that keeps you up at night are jammed hostel dorm room, endless invitations to party every night or maybe the longing to visit as much points as you can in just an insufficient span of time. Actually, you do need to make time for these socializing activities but always keep yourself in check. Remember that one of the reasons why you travel is to relax and enjoy yourself and not to look all worn at the end of the day. Worse is coming to your place with a sleeping disorder and more.

Some elements that heightens tension while roaming around the globe includes missing your stop, losing your way in a new place, waiting for delayed flights, misplacing your luggage, etc. But don't let having trouble sleeping be a part of it! This is something you can control! Try these tips that might help you catch some forty winks.

1. Clear your nose. Flying can give you some degree of sinus or ear irritation if you frequently experience nasal congestion most likely because of colds and allergies and these can also make you stay up all night when these are inclined to cause obstruction on nasal breathing passageways. Use a lot of nasal saline which acts as a mild decongestant which you may want to prepare yourself or head out to the pharmacy to get nasal sprays or decongestant tablets to avoid ear or sinus difficulties and open up these passageways.

2. Do not eat before hitting the sack. Even if this can be a common habit even if you're on a trip or only staying in at home, this could very well ruin your intention to have a peaceful sleep. Apart from gaining more pounds on you, when your stomach is full and you on your back, some of the stomach acids or juices regurgitate into your throat and cause inflammation and irritation. This will disrupt your slumber and decrease the opportunities of having a good night's sleep. It is urged to eat your food 3-4 hours before you drop in your bed.

3. Don't even think about drinking yourself to sleep. Many people will instantly think that binge drinking would assist them to have an improved sleep as it knocks them out but actually, you don't get to nap early. Little do you know that it weakens throat muscles then when you happen to rest on your back, the collapse of your tongue would cast it backwards obscuring your airway passageways. This would strip your brain of oxygen. Oftentimes, when your body turns too limp to move a muscle, you can fall flat on your face and the air that comes in would be blocked and cause you to stop breathing. Won't that instill enough fright in you? This is not to keep you from having fun on an occasional pub crawling; just make certain that you know your limits and have time for everything.

4. Try to drift off early. It's not easy, yes. For self-confessed insomniacs, it's absolutely difficult to work that out. But if you're just tempted to stay up late and maximize your time while on a vacation, fight that urge and make up an agenda of things to do then manage your time.But you must remember that eating on time and calling it a day before the break of dawn permit you to have a normal sleep duration that your body demands. Try not to shift and mix up your body clock by sleeping late and jolting up from sleep much later a day after. It will be difficult to return to your normal sleeping habits particularly when you shift through changing time zones.

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